CANNING

Why Should You Can?

There are many advantages to canning your drinks, for starters cans limit exposure to both light and oxygen, keeping the brew inside fresh and flavourful for longer.

Additionally, cans create a better airtight seal than bottles. During the canning process, the aluminum container is completely sealed, which prevents additional oxygen from reaching the contents until someone opens the can. In contrast, plastic bottles can occasionally let tiny amounts of air in, which can add up over time.

Cans Are More Portable.

There’s a reason that most of us pick canned beer when we pack a cooler. Bottled beer is heavier and more fragile. The same thought process applies to canned cold brew. For example, a six-pack of glass bottles weighs more than 3kg on average; meanwhile, a six-pack of canned drinks weighs around 2.25kg. 750 grams might sound like a small difference until you’re halfway through a 5km hike to your picnic site.

Cans Are Better for the Environment Than Bottles

There are multiple reasons why cans are better for the environment. First, because cans are lighter and more compact, it takes less fuel to ship them. Second, most communities have more robust recycling and deposit programs for aluminum than they do for glass or plastic. While only 26.4% of recycled glass and 32% of plastic actually gets reused, the EPA reports that 54.9% of all aluminum cans get successfully repurposed after recycling.

Aluminum Cans Don’t Impact Your Coffee's Flavour  

Like many people, you might believe that coffee tastes better out of a glass bottle. However, blind taste tests have shown that there’s no consistent difference between the flavours of bottled and canned coffee.  In 2017, researchers had 135 coffee lovers taste the same coffee in both cans and bottles. Then, they tasted each coffee in a blind taste test. While more than 61% of the participants preferred bottled coffee to canned coffee when they saw its container, those numbers didn’t hold up in the blind testing. Instead, the numbers were split almost evenly between canned and bottled coffee.

If you feel like a canned coffee tastes tinny or metallic, it’s not the can’s fault. All aluminium cans are lined with a coating that protects the contents. Instead, that metallic taste is likely caused by problems in the brewing process, such as issues with water chemistry and ingredient storage. Remember also that you’re not really supposed to drink your drink out of the can anyway; coffee always tastes better poured into an open glass, whether it came to you in a can, glass or a plastic bottle.